Careless Love

Releasing on all platforms Friday 13th February 2026.



         

Mick writes:

Here's a song that goes way back to the 19th Century - a ballad that turned into a jazz and blues standard, recorded by Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and Ray Charles among many others.

I recorded the song myself on my first solo album 'Looking For Trouble' back in 1983. I'd heard it on the radio by a Delta Blues singer so based my version on his.. I'm using a similar lyric for this new rendering.

At the time I didn't know the song's history, but my friend the pianist Lou Martin soon put me right. He also renamed the song in honour of our bass player at the time and the song became known as 'Careless Len'. The version we did then is well worth a listen, featuring my early slide guitar and Lou's sparkling joanna. Happy days.

So although being copyrighted by one W.C.Handy back in 1925 (cheeky boy) this is a public domain song, arr: M. Clarke. In dedication to my late friend Lou - 'Careless Len'..



Original artwork photo by Isidore Decamon, Unsplash.